We document the propagation through supply chains of the most damaging cyberattack in history and the important role of banks in mitigating its impact. Customers of directly hit firms saw reductions in revenues, profitability, and trade credit relative to similar firms. The losses were larger...

This paper examines whether targeted credit rationing by banks can disrupt the operations of firms likely to generate negative externalities. We exploit a major regulatory initiative in the United States–Operation Choke Point–which targeted bank relationships with firms in industries with a...

While expanding public investment can help filling infrastructure bottlenecks, scaling up too much and too fast often leads to inefficient outcomes. This paper rationalizes this outcome looking at the association between cost inflation and public investment in a large sample of road construction...

This paper studies the high and persistent U.S. cost of financial intermediation (CFI) documented by Philippon (2015) and its inverted U-shape behavior since the mid-1960s. We build a novel model of endogenous growth and bank intermediation and introduce imperfect bank competition, bank IT...

The returns from public investment, especially during periods of scaling up, are often lower than expected. To understand the mechanisms behind this regularity we exploit original information on investment projects obtained from World Bank project reports to document the extent and the drivers...

Can debt moratoria help countries weather negative shocks? We study the bond market effects of an official debt service suspension endorsed by the international community during the Covid-19 pandemic. Using daily data on sovereign bond spreads and synthetic control methods, we show that...

While expanding public investment can help filling infrastructure bottlenecks, scaling up too much and too fast often leads to inefficient outcomes. This paper rationalizes this outcome looking at the association between cost inflation and public investment in a large sample of road construction...